Founded in July 2019 by Steve Donnithorne, CL Tyres Ltd is a relative newcomer in the industrial tyre business. However, in this case, that youth belies the experience behind the business, something that another of the company’s director’s, Steve Pye, explained to Tyres & Accessories during the recent IMHX exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham at the start of September 2022.
Emerald Resilient Tyre Manufacturers Pvt Ltd has launched a new range of solid skid-steer tyres at the IMHX 2022 exhibition in association with the company’s UK distributor, World Wide Tyre Marketing (Fork Truck Tyres Ltd).
According to the company, Emerald is the largest Indian solid and pneumatic tyre manufacturing and exporting company and was proud to launch the new range, which is available both with and without apertures.
From a standing start less than a decade ago, GB Tyres is now aiming to be a key player in the UK wholesale business. When the company’s full-year financial results come in at the end of August, turnover will have reached £53 million. So, in other words, the business is trucking along nicely and making good progress towards its goals. Tyres & Accessories met up with Commercial Director Graham Hutchison and founder Sukhi Singh to visit the company’s Tipton headquarters and relatively new Oldbury wholesale warehouse.
At the end of July, Chinese tyre cord manufacturer Xingda announced that it is investing 1.6 billion yuan (£200 million; 232.432 million euros; $237 million) adding 200,000 tons of steel cord annual production capacity to its Thailand factory. The planned construction period is 24 months and the project has been officially approved by China’s National Development and Reform Commission.
ZC Rubber’s subsidiary in Xindeng Town, Fuyang District, Hangzhou City, is planning to add 2.5 million all-steel radial tyres to its production capacity. ZC Rubber stated that the company plans to build a new production workshop and auxiliary facilities shared by the Xindeng Town plant in the reserved space inside the factory. The total construction investment is expected to be 700 million yuan (about £85.14 million, 102 million euros).
Guizhou Tyre (also known as Advance Tyre) is preparing to launch an industrial tyre manufacturing expansion project with an annual output of 300,000 a year. The total investment in this project is about 24 million yuan (£2.926 million; 3.486 million euros; US$3.588 million). The expansion project does not involve the acquisition of new land.
Sentury is in the process of declaring its Spanish factory plans as a strategic industrial project with the government of Garcia, Spain. The tyre maker hopes that its plant in the As Pontes region of Garcia will be able to use this method to obtain fast-track approvals to speed up the entire project’s construction.
On 24 June 2022 Sailun decided to invest 15.18 billion yuan in building a new tyre factory in Dongjiakou, West Coast New District, Qingdao City, Shandong Province. The planned annual production capacity is 20 million sets of semi-steel radial tyres, 10 million sets of all-steel radial tyres and 150,000 tons of OTR tyres. At present, the Sailun board of directors has passed this investment proposal.
Halfords Group has reported strong full-year 2022 revenue growth of +19.9 per cent compared with 2020. That means total group revenues amounted to £1.369 billion in 2022, of which £368 million came from the autocentres business – an increase of 91.9 per cent compared with 2020. Group gross margin totalled £721.7 million, of which £211.0 million came from Autocentres. Much of the Autocentres-driven growth comes via the acquisitions of Iversons and the Axle Group/National Tyres last year, however life-for-like growth of 23.4 per cent shows that business continues on an organic upward trajectory as well. As a result, Halfords Autocentres gross margin is now growing six-times faster than the group’s wider retail business.
An ice cream van was parked in front of the door when Tyres & Accessories visited Direct Tyre Management’s (DTM) new Blackpool headquarters in mid-May. At the same time, staff were presented with sticks of rock, buckets and spades and were enjoying food together. The reason? The DTM team were celebrating the official opening of the company’s Blackpool HQ and executives were welcoming staff to the new location a few miles up the road from the previous offices in Skelmersdale. Beyond the team-building benefits of the celebrations, the relocation itself illustrates how DTM has developed from a niche player into a fast-growing digital fleet technology business. Tyres & Accessories met with chief technology officer Dominic Clark and sales manager Simon Makin in order to find out more.
Founded in France in 1971, Point S Group is now present in 48 countries across four continents. Point S officially launched in the UK in 2011 and therefore celebrated a decade on these shores last year. Just as Tyres & Accessories was on-hand when pre-launch discussions were taking place on the fringes of the Reifen Essen show back in 2010, while the market prepared for Tire Cologne 2022, we caught up with network manager Wayne Daniel in order to find out more.
Hella has expanded its site in Großpetersdorf, Austria. The company’s subsidiary, Hella Fahrzeugteile Austria GmbH has invested in the construction of a new 450sqm tool warehouse on three levels and a 600sqm logistics hall. The investment will also cover the renewal and expansion of machinery. The developments, in which the company is investing several million euros, are scheduled for completion by the end of 2022.
Nokian Tyres is expediting “plans to invest in new production capacity in Europe” in response to the sanctions against Russia, where the company has significant levels of tyre production. Specifically, Nokian’s board of directors will cut the dividend payable to shareholders by 106 million euros to fund the new capacity. Nokian Tyres will also increase capacity at its factories in Finland and the US with a view to becoming more geographically diversified in its manufacturing operations.
CL Tyres
Chris Anthony/Tyre Industry Publications Ltd
Chris Anthony/Tyre Industry Publications Ltd
Xingda
ZC Rubber
Eden Tyres
Guizhou Tyre
Sailun
B-Quik
Tyre Industry Publication Ltd
Point S
Hella